Regarding the money paid to the cadres of Hizb, the NIA said their “monthly remuneration has increased from Rs 2000-3000 per month in 1990s to Rs 10,000-12,000 per month in 2011”.
NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence ( ISI) and other “agencies of Islamic Republic of Pakistan” have beenfunding activities of Hizbul Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir through cross-border trade between India and Pakistan, a chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a case of terror funding has said. This and other methods of funding led to an inflow of Rs 80 crore into the coffers of Hizb in the past eight years, the chargesheet said.
Filed on Saturday against Hizb chief Syed Salahuddin and nine others, the chargesheet was on Tuesday taken cognizance of by the NIA special court in Delhi. Detailing methods of funding terror activities in the Valley, the chargesheet said terrorists of HuM, who crossed over to Pakistan in the garb of traders, were involved in trade across the LoC and misused it to send money and weapons to the Indian side from PoK and Pakistan. It said some truck drivers were also involved in it.
“Investigation has revealed that HuM is exploiting the barter system of trade in vogue at the border to pump funds for terrorist activities,” it said.
The chargesheet further said HuM’s modus operandi was to “under invoice the goods sent from across PoK/Pakistan. Indian counterparts send equivalent goods as per barter system and the extra money generated in this exchange is collected by HuM from traders in India.”
These funds are then received by HuM cadres known as “relief takers”. NIA claimed to have evidence that “around 263 individuals based in PoK who are assigned the work of relief takers in Pakistan/PoK” are active terrorists of HuM. These relief takers had obtained Rs 2.09 crore from Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART), an overground NGO working as a front for HuM to fund terror, for further distribution among 673 beneficiaries.
Regarding the money paid to the cadres of HuM, the NIA said their “monthly remuneration has increased from Rs 2000-3000 per month in 1990s to Rs 10,000-12,000 per month in 2011”.
It also said the terror outfit had developed a set-up for distribution of funds to its sympathizers and others and also provide money to its cadres for contesting court cases.
Giving details of the banned terror outfit, the NIA said HuM had established its main office in Islamabad while JKART was its “frontal organization”.
“Investigation has revealed that in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, Markazi-e-Shura of HuM, a top body of its decision making, in the year 1999 in a meeting chaired by Mohd Syed Salahuddin… in connivance with the agencies of government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, including but not limited to Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), founded a trust namely JKART, a frontal organization of HuM, with the object to systematically receive, collect and raise funds from different sources in Pakistan and other countries,” it said.
JKART also received funds from another trust ‘Relief Organization for Kashmiri Muslims (ROKM)’ founded for rehabilitation of migrant Kashmiri Muslims in Pakistan and PoK, it said, adding JKART and ROKM were primarily funded by Pakistan government and its agencies.